Archive for the ‘sprint car racing’ tag

How tough is Steve Kinser? When the 20-time World of Outlaws champion arrived for a recent Sunday stop at Lebanon Valley Speedway in New York, Kinser had raced the previous three days, back-to-back, at tracks in Pennsylvania, including a Saturday night main that lasted well beyond midnight, thanks to a weather delay. Despite this, he started the Lebanon Valley feature on the pole, but drew a yellow flag almost immediately with a fritzed ignition box. His crew quickly swapped it out, but then, on the restart for his own yellow, Kinser flipped the car. Once it was righted, the 60-year old driver re-fired the car and kept right on racing, as if nothing had happened, delivering a 12th place finish in the crowded A-main race.

Kinser in the early days, circa 1980.

Put plainly, Steve Kinser has done things in the shrieking, 900-hp Sprint cars that can stand against any accomplishment in the world of motorsports. He is, quite simply, the greatest dirt track driver who ever turned a wheel in the history of American auto racing. Kinser is a rock-hard racer, a former Indiana state wrestling champion who followed his father, Bob, a brutishly strong laborer accustomed to carrying brick hods for a paycheck, into the evil Sprint cars. His identity, the King of the Outlaws, is anything but an idle boast. Kinser was in the World of Outlaws first race (at Mesquite, Texas) in 1978 and has been in virtually every one of its features ever since. Along the way, he has amassed an incredible 800-plus A-feature wins, plus the first three consecutive World of Outlaws point titles. Oh, and he had a single start in the Indianapolis 500; he finished 14th in 1997. By the time he joined the Outlaws troupe, he was already a terror on the fabled Sprint ovals of Indiana, having notched his first win in 1976 at his home track, Bloomington Speedway.

Kinser with Eldora Speedway promoter Earl Baltes.

Along with rivals Sammy Swindell (also still racing) and Doug Wolfgang, Kinser formed the triumvirate that elevated Sprint car racing to true national prominence during the 1980s, driving mainly for his distant cousin, Karl Kinser. The list of victories he has amassed is unassailable: Fourteen triumphs at the Knoxville Nationals in Iowa, seven runnings of the prestigious Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway in Ohio, a dozen editions of the Gold Cup in California, four wins at the Williams Grove National Open in Pennsylvania, three Western World Championships at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, and an IROC event at Talladega Superspeedway.

Kinser’s current ride, with Tony Stewart Racing.

This year marks Kinser’s final season as a driver. He had a brief fling with the NASCAR team of Kenny Bernstein before returning to Sprint cars, driving now for Tony Stewart Racing. All eyes will focus next month on the Knoxville Nationals where Kinser will try to win an untouchable 13th crown. His son, Kraig, is also a Knoxville Nationals champion.

Even in his final season, Kinser’s focus in no less intense.

The selection of photos shown here illustrates two things: Sprint cars haven’t changed a whole lot conceptually, and Kinser has been winning for a very long time. One image shows him with the legendary, now-retired Eldora promoter Earl Baltes, at whose track Kinser made history. Just as an example, in the 1980s he arrived late there to drive Johnny Vance’s USAC Sprint car. Never took a time trial lap. Started the feature dead last, with zero practice time, and still won. That’s Klassic Kinser.

If you grew up loving American-style open-wheel racing, you had to grow up deeply admiring Gary Bettenhausen, an absolute stud of a second-generation racing driver who was a virtual immortal in Sprint cars before he made an amazing, if troubled, transition to Indy cars. Bettenhausen’s wife, Wavelyn, found him deceased on Sunday afternoon in their Monrovia, Indiana, home. He was 72.

It’s almost trite, but still accurate, to state that the Bettenhausen family’s history was suffused with both triumph and tragedy. The family patriarch, Tony, put their hometown of Tinley Park, Illinois, on the map by winning copiously in Midgets and copping national driving titles with AAA and USAC in 1951 and 1958, respectively. He was killed in 1961 while practicing in Paul Russo’s car before the Indianapolis 500, having never captured racing’s most prestigious prize.

Gary was the eldest of the elder Bettenhausen’s three sons, and the broadest success in racing. Among his five USAC national titles were those he won in Sprint cars while locked in season-long combat with Ohio native Larry Dickson. Their wars on dirt and pavement are still referred to as the Larry and Gary Show, making the protagonists into something akin to the Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell of their day. Astoundingly, but completely in character, Gary completed his rookie test for the Indianapolis 500 aboard an upright, front-engine dirt car. He became a powerhouse in USAC Sprint cars driving for Willie Davis, which got him seats with Roger Penske, driving both Indy cars and the team’s AMC Matadors in NASCAR.

He was an extremely credible driver, winning the Indy car round at Trenton in only his second start for Penske, but despite the Captain’s warnings, he refused to stay away from the violent short-track stuff. A dirt car flip out of the Syracuse mile in 1975 left him with a useless left arm and without the Penske rides. He nonetheless went on to race in the 500 a total of 21 times – once bringing a junkbox from 33rd on the grid to finish third – and capturing seven Indy car wins through the 1990s.

Misfortune befell all three of Tony Bettenhausen’s sons. Besides Gary’s partially disabling injury, younger brother Merle lost an arm when he crashed in his only Indy car start, at Michigan. Another sibling, Tony Jr., ran well at Indy but was killed in a 2000 plane crash.

A couple of weeks ago, reader and race fan Tom Luce notified us about the shutdown of Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, California, which had been running since 1947. Tom recently got back in contact and told us that it’s happening again. The promoters of Victorville Raceway Park have announced that they will stop presenting events effective in March.

The announcement came via an online fan forum for the savage USAC/CRA non-winged Sprint cars, which Tom photographed here as they prepared for a joint race with USAC in March 2011. As he told us, “This has the effect of closing the track. The contract ends March 13, 2012, and there will be a few shows up until that date. This is profoundly bad news for race fans. This would make the second race track to close in 2012 in Southern California. The reason for not continuing in 2012 was said to be ‘economic conditions.’”

We ran this by the local newspaper, the Daily Press, also in Victorville. The newspaper reported that the promoters, Steve and Jill Quercios, could not be reached for comment. The Daily Press also quoted the San Bernardino County Fair Board, which owns the track property, as saying insurance and manpower costs were steep, and that the Quericios preferred to promote monster truck events.

If you’re unfamiliar with the racing, USAC/CRA is an evolution of the original California Racing Association, which goes back all the way to the immediate post-war years when guys like Jack McGrath and Manny Ayulo raced hot rods in it as the California Roadster Association. They later evolved into Sprint cars, and the CRA produced heroes like Dean Thompson, Leland McSpadden and the transplanted Illinois barber, the immortal Bubby Jones. The drivers Tom captured here included Brent Camarillo, Corey Kruseman and Rickie Gaunt.

These things are flat-out nasty, spectacular to watch and clear throwbacks to the way it used to be. You can watch them at their home track, Perris Auto Speedway, south of Moreno Valley in adjacent Riverside County. The season starts February 11. For more information, visit PerrisAutoSpeedway.com.

Editor’s Note: You didn’t have to go to Vietnam to find combat in the 1970s. It took place on oval tracks across the Midwest, where the sprint cars of the United States Auto Club sent some very brave guys to glory if they were lucky, and to long-term orthopedic rehab, or worse, if they weren’t.

Dave Argabright, one of the best racing historians in America, is already familiar with that era from his co-written autobiographies of Jack Hewitt, Eldora Speedway founder Earl Baltes and Chris Economaki. Argabright has now released his first work of fiction, Sprint Car Salvation, the collection of serialized articles from Sprint Car & Midget magazine about Jimmy Wilson, a young guy trying to break into an extremely unforgiving kind of motorsports. Dave has kindly agreed to let us excerpt the book here.

The most difficult thing for Jimmy to swallow was that he knew they were right. Now that he had regained his composure, he was embarrassed that he had allowed himself to be drawn into something inexcusably dangerous.

He kept to himself as Harvey and Slim readied the Ellison car for the feature. The night was cool, and he climbed into the car as Slim handed him his helmet and gloves. Jimmy would line up eighth, right behind Graffan, who was alongside Sammy. The Greek was in the second row, while Al was two rows behind Jimmy.

It was quickly evident that the race would be a duel between Graffan and Jimmy, with Sammy’s enormous skills keeping him in the hunt. After just five laps Graffan led with Jimmy right behind, and for the next few circuits they locked into a classic battle. Unlike the ugly tactics of the heat race, this time they raced each other clean. No mind games; just two drivers taking it to the limit, but at the same time taking care of the other guy.

Graffan left the inside lane open going into three, and Jimmy moved the Ellison alongside. He expected Graffan to cut him off coming out of the corner, but Graffan held his line. Jimmy was unable to make the pass, and he fell back in behind Graffan.

Back in mid-pack, George Panos was hanging on. He and his car owner, Ed Kaiser, had badly missed the setup, and the Greek was fighting an evil race car. In less than 10 laps Panos had dropped to 10th from his second-row starting spot.

As he entered turn one, he heard the scream of a car alongside. It was a local racer, moving through the pack, his car clawing desperately for traction as he worked the low groove. Panos stayed high, and as he came off the corner he felt the Kaiser car suddenly grab the race track and rocket forward.

But the other car hadn’t expected him to come off so well. He had already committed himself to moving quickly to the outside to steal the line from the Greek, and as the two cars came together they were just a foot from the outside guardrail.

The veteran Panos nearly cried out when he realized the other man was coming, leaving him no room. He desperately lifted the throttle and braked, but it was too late. The screaming cars instantly tangled into a mass of steel, rubber, and man, with the Kaiser sprinter soaring into the air, beginning a wild, sickening series of flips atop the guardrail.

With each impact came the violent sounds of metal being hopelessly twisted and crushed. The Greek heard only the first one.

The car came to a stop on its wheels, the engine silent and steaming. The right side of the cage had collapsed, and pieces of fiberglass, steel, and aluminum littered the scene. The Greek’s head sagged ominously onto his chest, his limp, lifeless arms hanging outside the cockpit, his gloves long ago flung toward the heavens.

Argabright lives outside Indianapolis and knows well of what he writes. Motorsports fiction is a very hard thing to get right, without dropping into the barrel of schmaltz or contrivance. I can tell you that this tale, and its language, have the ring of accuracy, a major accomplishment. I can only think of two other remotely comparable fiction titles: The late Philip LeVrier’s Knoxville!, published in the early 1980s, and The Hot Mods, a potboiler from 1969 about dirt Modified coupes in the Northeast. Argabright’s work, and subject matter, will stand the test of time. At 240 hardcover pages, it’s $24.95. Go to DaveArgabright.com.